A MAN enraged by problems with his BMW car grabbed a shotgun and took an employee hostage at the automaker's French headquarters today, an official said.

The man fired twice in the air with a pump-action shotgun without shooting anyone and took a receptionist hostage briefly before surrendering to police at the German manufacturer's offices west of Paris, officials said.

"It's an average customer who complains that his vehicle has mechanical problems and that BMW is unable to repair them," state prosecutor Luc-Andre Lenormand said, adding that the man had targeted BMW several times before.

"It was premeditated," Mr Lenormand said. "He will be charged with arson, armed threats and illegal detention" and will be examined by a psychiatrist.

The man was already facing charges for assaulting an employee at a BMW dealership and was suspected of plotting in 2006 to hire accomplices to break into a BMW dealer's home and kill him and his family, Mr Lenormand said.

In 2003 the suspect had tried to set himself on fire in front of the BMW dealership where he had bought his car.

'A MAN enraged by problems with his BMW car grabbed a shotgun and took an employee hostage at the automaker's French headquarters today, an official said'.
"It's an average customer who complains that his vehicle has mechanical problems and that BMW is unable to repair them,"....

FFS.
If I worked for BMW, I would be seriously worried about that statement...